Type Principles & History

The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst 

Shaping Text,  Jan Middendorp 

Inside Paragraphs, Cyrus Highsmith 

Thinking with Type, Ellen Lupton

Type on Screen, Ellen Lupton 

Flexible Typesetting, Tim Brown

Stop Stealing Sheep, Erik Spiekermann 

Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type, Kimberly Elam

The Visual History of Type, Paul McNeil

20th Century Type Remix, Lewis Blackwell 

Typography, Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott, and Bernard Stein (hard to find)

Designers & Type Design

Watching Words Move, Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar

Herb Lubalin: Typographer, Adrian Shaughnessy & Tony Brook (Editors)

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Kerry William Purcell 

The New Typography, Jan Tschichold 

Typorama, Phillippe Apeloig

Designing Type, Kimberly Elam

Creative Characters, The MyFonts Interviews, Vol. 1, Jan Middendorp (Editor) 

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles. Vol. 1 & 2, Cees W. de Jong (Editor) 

Type Collections & Miscellaneous

Type Only, Tony Brook, Claudia Klat and Adrian Shaughnessy (Editors)

Type Plus, Tony Brook, Adrian Shaughnessy (Editors)

Type Addicted, Viction:ary (Editors) 

Typoholic, Viction:ary (Editors)

In Progress, Jessica Hische

Typography Sketchbooks, Steven Heller, Lita Talarico (Editors)

Signs: Lettering in the Environment, Phil Baines & Catherine Dixon

Lettering & Type, Bruce Willen, Nolen Strals

ABZ: More Alphabets and Other Signs, Julian Rothenstein, Mel Gooding (Editors)

Type Collections 

Letterform Archive Online – A nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community.

Typographica Library – A digital bookshelf of type and lettering resources, brought to you by Typographica.

TypeList – A curated selection of typeface "playlists," by Upstatement

Learning Resources

Foundations of Type Design – All-comprehensive course in which students will learn about the foundations of type design, how to get started on designing their first typeface, and how to plan out a series of styles. 

Editorials

Do You Want Typography or Do You Want the Truth? — Op-Ed by Erik Carter

On Typefaces (Histories) 

The Origins of Akzidenz-Grotesk – Nobody knows who designed Akzidenz-Grotesk. For about 20 years it was attributed to Theinhardt, but this has recently been proven untrue.

Jenson and his Type — A close look at the earliest types cut in Venice shows that Nicolas Jenson is one of the most important characters in the history of typography

Google Universal Font — Google’s Quest To Design a Typeface for Every Language on Earth, and the Family of typefaces called Noto.

Hidden Treasures —  Original type sketches and unpublished letter fragments from the Bauhaus, rediscovered and digitized by an international team of students guided by Erik Spiekermann. 

The NYC Subway – There is a common misbelief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system. A discussions with the author who has uncovered the truth (maybe).

Type Design in the Museum: Acquiring the Immaterial – In March 2010, the Museum of Modern Art in New York announced a strange new acquisition for its design collection: the @ symbol. 

On Type Design (Industry)

Typefaces of 2020 – Post from I Love Typography reviewing the best in Type Design in 2020

Typefaces of 2019 – Post from Typographica reviewing the best in Type Design in 2019

The Rise of Custom Typefaces — A look at the growing trend among technology companies of making custom typefaces.

Public Sans – Why the US Government Made Its Own Custom Font.

When Type Designers Become 'Celebrities' – A conversation with type designer Christian Schwartz, in which he rejects celebrity status and notes several important tendencies in contemporary type design.

Crediting in Typeface Design — Fair and proper crediting is important for the typography industry as a whole. 

Future Fonts —  A Marketplace for Unfinished Typefaces and a vision for how to empower type designers to experiment more, take more risks — and get paid for it in the process.

Census Typographica 2013 — A  Typographica report that aims to contribute to existing information about the state of the digital type industry by presenting a deeper, more factual examination. 

On Type Design (Process)

Typographic Illusions — A collection of free tools for demonstrating typographic phenomena, for anyone teaching or studying typeface design.

Is What I See What I Get? — Math & Optics in Type Design. The differences between what I see, and what I think I see are especially important to consider when dealing with type.

Designing Type Systems – To create truly useful work, designers need to examine not only how characters relate to each other within a style, but also how different styles relate to each other within a family.

Design your own Typeface — 17 tips to create your own typeface

Intro to Software for Font Design – An overview from Fontsmith

Ink Traps and Pals – Thoughts on Ink Traps and type design from Toshi Omagari

Additional Recommendations Here & Here.

On Layout & Margins

Let's Talk About Margins — We’re making a book. The margins are important. Do you know how important?

Back Alley Poster Show — Designer Erik Brandt’s curated an outdoor poster show by an array of global graphic design innovators. In his garage.

Structural Typography — Letterforms are just as valuable as graphic elements as they are representations of language, and asking type to serve multiples roles in a composition is a reliable way to elevate the quality of your work.

On Vernacular Type 

13 Miles of Type — As the Main Street of Manhattan, Broadway exhibits a catalogue of lettering—from neon lights to mom-and-pop shop signs, from theater marquees to building names. Join in this tour of the typography of Broadway.

Vernacular Type  — A collector of French vernacular typography & lettering 

Museum of Found Letters — The Buchstabenmuseum is the first museum in the world to collect letterforms from public spaces and display them as part of urban history. 

On Type Specimens

Ahn Sang Soo — Dating back to 1985, specimens of Ahn’s digital type represent the origins of exploration and play found in Hangul design today. 

Jean Midolle – An enigmatic portfolio of fantastical lettering styles continues to fascinate designers and historians.

On Web Typography

Flexible Typesetting –  Learn how a better understanding of typography on the web.

Professional Web Typography — A book that combines theory and practicality on web typography.

UI vs Print: Contradictions – Type standards are looser on the web than in print.  And because we see looser leading everywhere, it’s become the norm. 

A Short History of Point Sizes on the Web – Around 2005, there were two popular font sizes for body copy: 10px and 11pxl. Those seem small  today.

6 Tips for Better Web Type – How do we avoid the most common mistakes when it comes to setting type on the web? 

Web Design in the Open — Frank Chimero redesigns his website "in the open," and documents the process along the way.

Current State of Italics — Current Variable standards work as intended—but not with Italics.

Drop Caps & Design Systems – A story about making things 1% better, via Drop Caps.

On Font Formats 

Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts — OpenType variable fonts present great opportunity and challenge. Type designers are bound to find innovative ways to use the technology. This time, we may be cautiously optimistic that the technology will live up to its promise

What's the Difference Between Variable and Parametric Fonts? — Although the idea of parametric and variable fonts has been around since the late 1970s, it hasn’t been until fairly recently that  the technology to create them has become available. 

How to Start with Variable Fonts on the Web — A primer on variable fonts on the web.

Font Size is Useless—Let's Fix It — Questioning the way we measure font sizes.

CEDARS — A set of type descriptors that can describe any typeface in any script based on its formal qualities. 

On Punctuation, Etc. 

The Em Dash Divides — Why do people care so much about a piece of—no offense—punctuation? A look at the Em Dash.

Has the Internet Killed Curly Quotes? – Web publications tend to favor straight quotation marks, a pragmatic approach to typography that old-school stylists can’t stand.

Words and phrases that Originated in Typography – There are some terms like “the press” (as in “news media”), among others, which are linked to printing with moveable type. 

Micro-Typography: How To Space And Kern Punctuation Marks And Other Symbols– How do we add spacing to punctuation marks and other symbols, and how do we adjust the space on the left and right side in an easy and consistent way?

Monogram Project – Spurred on by a love of letterforms and momentary insanity, designer Hope Meng began to draw every combination of 2 letters that the alphabet provides us.